The invention relates to a slideway for guiding clothed travelling flats in a carding machine. The travelling flats are advanced by means of at least one endless drive element such as a flexible belt. Opposite ends of each flat bar glide in a slideway along the work path of the flats, and after having reached the end of the work path, the flat bars ar carried back to the beginning of the work path by the endless driving element on the side opposite the slideways. The slideways have a central zone (hereafter also termed as "convex" zone) closely following the curvature of the main carding cylinder at the top portion thereof and two end zones (hereafter also termed as "concave" zones) which closely follow the curvature of the end sprockets of the travelling flats.
Conventionally, the slideway in which the flat bar ends slide is a one-piece plastic component which at one end is immobilized by a securing device at a location where the flat bars enter the slideway. At the end of the concave slideway portion a holding element is secured which clamps, with a clamping element, an end of the slideway by means of a screw-and-nut connection. The flat bars exert a pulling force on the slideway, whereby the concave slideway zones are likely to exert an excessive radial looping pressure on the flats which may lead to a wear of the slideway, to scores or the like. Further, loads as well as high temperatures or temperature variations may cause a plastic deformation of the slideway material which may lead to a faulty guidance of the flat bars in the concave inlet slideway zone.